Chapter 12

It was already a week after my dual with Heathcliff, and I nearly had Holy Sword figured out. First I could only extend the sharp point of the shield with a sword skill, but now at will. The key to that was changing my skill for defending. I had used Sword Defense, the skill that let you use defending sword skills, because I didn't had a shield. But now I did, I equipped Shield Control and because I had mastered Sword Defense, this skill was mastered too.

"If this game is over, I never use this Nerve Gear again. It feels like cheating, doing it like this." I whispered to myself.

"What did you say?" Crimson asked.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Alright then. But one question. Why did you start using a shield after your dual with Heathcliff?"

"First of all, never talk about that dual. And second, I knew he had this shield to spare. I wanted it. As you see, its defense is really high. Aiming for the floors still to come, I may need it."

"I see. Then do you also have a shield for me?"

"Why do you need a shield? You are doing fine without it."

"So you can use a shield, but let me die in boss fights?"

"What? You're not fighting on the front line and especially a boss fight. Are you crazy? You have no real experience in fighting."

"I can defeat these monsters just fine so a boss should be easy."

"No it's not. A boss is 10 times more powerful, maybe even more. A monster you can defeat on your own, for a boss you need a large group filled with high level players who have experience on fighting bosses because they are totally different then monsters."

"Alright then. But how can I help clearing this game if you don't let me get the experience?"

"You want to fight a boss? Fine then, come with me. I will take you to a weak mid-level boss. We will see how you handle that."

I was thinking of the dragon I defeated on the 55th floor. His level should be high enough to survive it, and if he screw it up, I am there to save him. His level is a bit lower than mine was that time and he is using the same kind sword I was using back then, but the problem I ran into wasn't my level back then, it was the fact that the sword was damaged before I started fighting. Thanks to Lizbeth's repair, that sword was stronger than before so should be able to do it.

We walked towards the teleport gate and went to the 55th floor. We walked up the mountain and I noticed Crimson was getting exited. Maybe even to exited.

"Scared?" I said calm

"Of course not. I will show you that I will defeat this mid-boss with one hand on my back."

"Then be ready for a big surprise. I was just a few levels above you when I challenged this mid-boss and I had a hard time against it." I wasn't planning on telling him why that was.

"You are kidding right?" He seemed scared now.

"No I am not. You must never underestimate an opponent. That will get you killed."

When we reached the top of the mountain, the dragon was on the far edge, waiting for us.

"Stay calm. Think about what I learned you. Focus and you will be fine." I said calm to him.

"What are his attacks?"

"I am not telling you. Most of the times we challenge a boss, we don't know that so show me that you can figure it out on your own."

"And if I don't?" he asked nervously.

"I will not let you die if that is what you think." I smiled at him to make him relax a little.

"Thank you for that. Well, here I go."

He drew his sword and walked towards the dragon. The dragon looked towards him and then back to me. Doing this over and over like he didn't understand who to target. I simply pointed my finger towards Crimson as a joke but it seemed the dragon understood it as he now looked only at Crimson.

He roared and Crimson took a step back. The dragon saw his chance and launched its breath attack. It was hard for me to only watch, since it totally conflicted with the idea of saving my brother. I kept thinking about that one hit won't kill him but gladly Crimson dodged the attack.

As he moved in with a charge sword skill, he hit the belly of the dragon. But then he made a mistake. I have told him so many times, but he keeps forgetting. If you don't know your opponents moves, use hit and run tactics to learn them before moving in and launch a multi-hit combo.

Because Crimson forgot about that, the claw of the dragon hit him on the side, making him lose a lot of HP. As the other claw moved in to finish the job, I made my move. I blocked the attack with the shield in my hand. As the dragon tried to attack again with its claw, I extended the sharp point on the shield and activated the sword skill Shield Strike, a weaker uppercut sword skill but great for knocking back your enemy to gain time to build up to an attack.

It launched the dragon into the air, leaving a lot of space between us. I grabbed Crimson and jumped back.

"How many times do I have to keep repeating it? Hit and run if you don't know his moves!" I said angry to him.

"I'm sorry. Maybe you are right. I am not ready for a boss fight."

"Don't worry about that now. We will do this together. I will only defend and you do what I say. Understood?"

"Roger that." He said while getting back on his feet.

We moved in together. The dragon still high up in the air launched his breath attack again but it was nothing my shield couldn't handle. I expected the dragon to lower his height but he didn't. He stayed high in the air, so we could not attack him. But he also wasn't attacking us.

"Come on! For old times. I won't kill you this time, I promise." I screamed towards it.

The dragon reacted to move his head backwards. It looked almost as if he was laughing. That shouldn't be possible. But the dragon slowly moved towards the ground and landed softly.

"Did you understand me?" I asked slowly by surprise.

The dragon looked right at me, not showing a reaction or attacking me. This was getting weird but it seemed the dragon was cooperating with me. I had heard there are some monsters able to become familiars, almost as pets, but I never heard of a boss showing this behavior.

I showed Crimson some moves for attacking without hitting the dragon and because of that, the dragon didn't attacked me. And when I did ask him to attack, he attacked without hitting me. He also did this if Crimson was close to him.

An hour past and when we planned on leaving, I walked up to the dragon.

"Thank you for this." I bowed my head thanking him.

The dragon let out a small roar and bowed his head as well. After that we walked away, not knowing what exactly had happened.

"You're sword is damaged a little, and my weapons need some look at too. Let's go to a blacksmith I know."

I thought of Lizbeth a lot lately. When I left her, we hadn't decided what we should do with the kiss we had. Had she made a decision? I really liked her, but I didn't know if it was love I felt. And was it only in this world or can we continue after this game is cleared? Those things ran through my mind as we walked towards her shop.

As we arrived, the shop was empty. The only one behind the counter was the NPC that handled it so she must be in the workshop.

"Wait here a second alright?" I asked Crimson as I moved towards the door to the workshop.

As I opened the door, I noticed her sitting on her chair inside the shop. She was reading something in the menu.

"Can I come in?" I asked.

She surprised looked up, seeing me at the door.

"Sure, come in." she said while getting up.

I walked up to her.

"It has been some weeks now, how are you?" I asked.

"Business is doing great. A slow day now but I don't mind it. It gives me time to order materials and to make weapons for the shop. And you? I know you found your little brother, is he alright?"

"Yeah he is doing great. I am training him now so he can walk around freely on the upper floors."

"That's good to hear, but you haven't said how you have been."

"Well… to be honest, I have missed you." I said while my face was turning red. She was blushing as well.

"I missed you to. I really want to give it a shot with you. I hope you would like that too."

"I would really like that. But I have to confess that I am not sure how I feel. I am afraid that what I feel is because of this world and I don't want to hurt you if it turns out that way."

"It doesn't matter. We will find that out together." She placed her hands in mine as we looked in each other eyes. Then we kissed.

A simple knock on the door broke our connection.

"Exia, how long are you planning on staying in there?" Crimson asked.

"That is my brother. Let me introduce you." I said, still holding her hand.

"Come on in." she said and Crimson opened the door.

He didn't realize that we were holding hands until he stood in front of me.

"Again something you haven't told me. How many secrets do you have?" he asked with a smile.

"Lizbeth, this is my brother Crimson. Crimson, this is Lizbeth."

"Nice to meet you. You have a beautiful shop."

"Thank you. It is nice to meet you too. What brings you to my shop?"

"I thought Exia wanted to come here for repairs, but it seems that you were the reason."

"Then why don't you give me your sword. I will repair it. It seems his reason for coming here is already done."

We started laughing. As she repaired and polished our swords, I couldn't take my eyes of her. This was the first time that this game made me feel truly happy for being here. I didn't even care that Crimson as a joke, talked with Lizbeth that he thought she was a bad influence on me because he never had saw me like this.

As it was getting late in the evening, Lizbeth offered Crimson the guest room and we sat down on the cough. It felt wrong every time my hand left her so we kept them locked in to each other.

"Crimson told me you started using a shield a week ago. Since when are you using a shield instead of Dual Blades?"

"It is kind of a long story. But yes." I said while showing the shield I just equipped.

"I never seen a shield like this. That point looks really sharp."

I extended it and the tip moved out by a few centimeters.

"I can also attack with it. The attack won't do much damage but will create a kickback, creating time for me to start attacking. I'm still training it, because I can switch swords, I can easily switch to Dual Blades if needed. That is why I gave it a shot."

"Is that the long story?"

"No it is not. But if you want to hear it, let me start from the beginning."

I told her everything. From the dual I saw from Kirito to the dual I had with Heathcliff. I even told her everything he had told me. About the extra skill Sword Birth and everything about it. Even things I never had said to anybody before, were told to her. I knew she would keep them secret.

After that we kissed again. She put her head on my shoulder as we slowly talked about small things and soon we both fall asleep. Right there on the cough.